Malaysian politician calls for tighter border control after execution of convicted drug trafficker last week

SINGAPORE: After the Sep 25 judicial execution in Singapore of Malaysian K Datchinamurthy, who had been convicted for drug smuggling over a decade ago, a politician in Malaysia has asked for enforcement actions to be tightened at borders and checkpoints.

Kasthuri Patto, a former Member of Parliament (MP) for Batu Kawan and the current secretary for the international affairs bureau of Malaysia’s Democratic Action Party (DAP), asked questions concerning how the country’s authorities conduct border checks, Free Malaysia Today reported on Sunday (Sep 28).

“The burning and inevitable question here is why were they not apprehended by customs officers or police on Malaysian soil? Did the Malaysian officers not know of the packages on these men or in their vehicles?” Ms Kasthuri asked in a statement.

More pointedly, she asked if the authorities were “aware of it but ‘allowed’ them to pass through the Malaysian border checkpoint into Singapore so that they could be apprehended there?”

The former MP also said that it’s time to add more resources and expertise to aid the officers at checkpoints and border patrols to prevent drug mules from bringing banned substances into Singapore.

She said they need to have adequate equipment to help them identify drug smugglers at Malaysia’s border checkpoints, as this would lead them to retrieve important information on drug syndicates, as well as give the authorities deeper insight into the traffickers and recruiters who involve their victims in their crimes.

Ms Kasthuri also underlined that drug mules commonly come from poor and marginalised people who are coerced into bringing drugs across borders.

“Malaysia must do better in upholding not only the rule of law but also justice, equality, freedom, and truth — without judgment, fear or favour, and especially for Malaysians on death row abroad,” she added.

In 2015, Datchinamurthy was sentenced to hang after having been found guilty of smuggling 44.96 grams of diamorphine into Singapore in 2011. He claimed at that time that a man named “Rajah” had asked him to bring Chinese medicine into Singapore.

In 2022, a last-minute stay of execution was granted to him, less than 24 hours before he was scheduled to be hanged. The Human Rights Commission of Malaysia has urged the government to step in concerning the cases of four Malaysians on death row in Singapore: P Pannir Selvam, S Saminathan, R Lingkesvaran, and K Datchinamurthy. /TISG

Read also: Stay of execution granted to Datchinamurthy Kataiah, who was scheduled to be hanged tomorrow Apr 29